What is IT!?: A History of Alternative Music

"It's it! What is it?!"

So go the most famous lines and the most irreconsilable quandry in all of modern rock's storied history. The line comes from aterna-metal-whatever band Faith No More's HUGE crossover hit, the aptly-titled "Epic," from their 1989 album "The Real Thing." This question has, from a metaphorical perspective, a lot of relevance to this blog.

Yeah - that's right - I said it. "Alternative music." That's what this blog entry is all about. That will likely immediately divide readers into a few different camps: On one side, we have people begging me to modernize my tastes ("Alternative rock was so 1994. It's over Mark. Get over it"). On another, we have people asking me if I'm talking about Death Cab for Cutie, Franz Ferdinand, or Linkin Park. On still another end, I have a group who shames me with that never-ending barrage ("Just what do you think "alternative rock is? Indie rock? Grunge? Nu Metal? There is no alternative rock! It was a buzz word!").

I disagree with all three groups, and as a side note, there'd be another group asking me how old I am to be able to remember all this (mostly 18-22 year-olds who like to pretend they were "there" abnd know what I'm talking about. There is no shame in saying "Alternative rock." Zilch. Alternative rock may be ambiguous, but it is a perfect description of what artists who were classified as such later on were doing during the 1990s, and especially during the late 1980s. I was once told that "alternative" was a phrase coined by journalists and youngsters to describe music that was the "alternative to what everyone was listening to." I never forgot this. It made sense.

Sure, alternative rock was made popular by my much-maligned new wave (I admit, also, that Kurt Cobain was a self-described "original new waver" and predicted Nirvana's future direction to go slightly more in that direction). Sure, it was made up of a smattering of hip-hop informed funk, metal that is now known as "alternative metal" (think Dillinger Escape Plan), weird Bay Area myusic that was thrash but . . not quite (Primus), heavy metal that owed more to Black Sabbath musically than to Metallica, and more to Leonard Cohen lyrically than to Exodus (Alice in chains, Melvins), art rock (Jane's Addiction, Mother Love Bone), punk (Germs, Green River, Dead Kennedys), Sabbath-meets-psychedelia (Soundgarden), white-boy rap (Beastie Boys), riot grrl punk/grunge (L7, Babes in Toyland, Sleater-Kinny, Hole), and some . . . well, some wierd, almost unclassifiable stuff (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle). Sure the bulk of it was traditional indie rock. Sure a lot of people were listening to REM in the late eighties, but it was on college radio (that is, until the "scene" hit). The fact remains that although "alternative" is a huge, overgeneralized classification "buzz" word, there was something happening in the mid-to-late eighties, and it wasn't just in the Pacific Northwest (where "grunge," more of a useless buzz word than alternative, as most of the acts classified as such had little in common).

Then, too, there were also the cash-ins . . . the imitators (Candlebox, Stone Temple Pilots [sorry guys . . . just because you were the best at it doesn't mean you weren't imitators]). The imitators are succubi the likes of which lead a shameful path of decay from STP through Creed and all the way to Nickelback. Now let us never speak of these Vedder-vocalist-wannabees again.

Geography shows the movement was as varied as the states it came from, but that their was a common thread of "fuck you I'll do what I want" originality that tied all together. A quick look:

Look to the Bay Area and you had an area that gave rise to Metallica and had a HUGE and influential thrash scene, and yet there were outcasts of that scene that became Praxis, Primus, and so many more. Their influences boomed all the way to South America, where young, agressive men who couldn't find many thrash records to buy, much less hear, became frustratted and formed their own supergroup, known as Sepultura. Oh . . . Primus. Yes, they were metal and thrash-informed, but there was so much else going on. Primus is like a wonderfully wacky science experiment gone horribly awry, but they are so good at it. Bandleader Claypool has an entire Claypool universe of amazing side projects going on (encompassing music, literature, even film).

The Bay area also gave rise to Green Day in 1987. Influential to a degree, the band also arrived to fame too late to be included as an example of an "early" alternative influence, but they still kick ass from time to time, although they are increasingly watered-down. Still, their story is a template for the rise of many bands. They hailed from a small town called Rodeo, which they often jokingly called "Bordeo" because of a lack of major industry and activity. They were essentially bored teenagers who formed a band and had nothing better to do.

More Bay Area madness, you ask? Hey, if you want truly INSANE creativity and questionable mental states, look no further rthan the mind-numbing genre-bending of Faith No More, a "one hit wonder" (not true) band that not only was one of the first bands ever to break down the doors (with an assist from gut-bustingly awful MTV, I admit) of corporate AOR drivvle with a bizarre, very early 90's blend of bright colors, wacky pants, and white boy, funk-rap-metal with their hit "Epic." Metal enough to get the headbangers, rap enough to get the faux-urban Run DMC, "In Living Colour" crowd, underground funk-metal enough to grab the funk rockers and piss off Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis, who accussed Mike Patton of "copping (his) style", catchy enough for MASSIVE radio play. All that and STILL it was indredibly, incredibly influential and original. Arriving in 1981 with original frontman Chuck Mosely, they has an underground crossover hit with "We Care a Lot," a sendup of the fake politics of artists supporting events like Live Aid. From the ashes of Faith No More (and a handful of other, wonderful albums and hits, one of which has the dubious distinction of being one of the most bizarre records ever released by a major label) we got Mike "the Voice" Patton, one of the most bizarre, mental, hyperactive, prolific, genre-banding, ritalin-infused and talented vocalists in music in the last 20 years. Like Claypool, he still has legions of loyal worshippers, and inhabits his own universe of wierdness, of "art" at its purest and most undistilled. Like Claypool, he founded his own record label when other major labels were reticent to take on his (frankly quite insane) projects. Other successful bands include Fantomas, Tomohawk, and even an electronic pop band called Peeping Tom, along with a big Italian Orchestra band called Mondo Cane (he sings entirely in Italian!)

New York? A HUGE New York art/music scene arrived out of the remnants of Warhol's 1960s Factory scene and gave us a little group called Sonic Youth. Out of that came of the shoegazing scenes of the late 80s, populated by bands like the Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine (all the way from Dublin, Ireland . . . no kidding!).

Massachusetts? Give me Dinosaur Jr., a combination of laid-back "punk," jam-band tendencies that bring to mind even Phish, and hints of shoe-gazer rock thrown in, and you have an indescribably influential band. Kurt loved them and they formed clear back in 1984!

New Jersey? Kyuss-meets-Soundgarden stoner rockers Monster Magnet (formed 1989).

Minnestoa? Husker Du (formed in 1979!!!!).

Athens Gerogia? Ummm . . . . REM, one of the earliest bands to get on college radio and challenge the AOR, arena-butt-rock that rose from the days of Led Zeppelin (think crap like Foreigner, Journey, and their filtered influence of hair metal bands from Def Leppard to Van Halen). Georgia also gave rise to seminal modern blues-rockers The Black Crowes.

Canada? Eric's Trip (named after a Sonic Youth song). Oklahoma? The Chainsaw Kittens. London? Catherine Wheel. Now look to Chicago. What have we here? The Chainsaw Kittens and Catherine Wheel gave rise to the SMmashing Pumpkins in the "Chicago scene," among other "alternative," "grunge" bands.

L.A.? Don't even get me started! Uzi Suicide and Slash records? X? The Red Hot Chili Peppers? David Yow and The Jesus Lizard? How about Guns n' Roses? Admittedly a metal band, but their hair metal image belied something more hidden and yet profound. These guys were sleaze rockers tempered with tough knocks and streets smarts, and, in Axl Rose, intense resentment and anger. These guys were more Rolling Stones circa "Beggars Banquet" than Scorpions or L.A. Guns. There was something so much more genuine about this young band than there was of, say, Ratt. L.A. of the late 80's was a richly cultured scene that gave us sleaze rock, yes, but also GnR, art/funk/metal/punk/whatever else you can think of-rockers Jane's Addiction, punkers X, early Metallica and alternative metal, prog-rockers TOOL, funk/early rap rockers Red Hot Chili Peppers, and oh so much more. Cultural mecca for alternative music.

On to the Pacific Northwest, the too-often overanalyzed "leader" of the alternative rock scene explosion of the early 90s. Yes, Sub Pop records came from the Pacific Northwest, but then again Slash Records came from L.A. and was just as "alternative." Yes, Nirvana (formerly Fecal Metter) came from Seattle. So did 3/4s of Pearl Jam. So did Alice in Chains, Mudhoney, Soundgarden, and the Screaming Trees. Fugazi themsevles came from Washington state. There was sooo much more at work there than "grunge rock." How about hardcore and not-so-hardcore punk? How about babydoll dresses on chick rockers and riot grrl rock bands like Babes in Toyland? How about that Pearl Jam was not "grunge" anything but were arena-ready rockers whose skills at crafting tasty guitar solos and hooks were honed from countless pre-"grunge" projects Green River, Malfunkshun, Mother Love Bone, and Andrew Wood tribute project Temple of the Dog. How about that that the Melvins were more akin to a detuned, slower Black Sabbath met with good old-fashioned punk rock than to bands like Nirvana? In fact, the Melvins had little in common with Seattle's best outside of Kurt Cobain's being an unofficial roadie and massive fan who, upon becoming successful with "Nevermind," got the struggling alternative metal rockers a record deal with DG Records for only a few brief years. Temple of the Dog themselves were a very early tribute project to Mother Love Bone's deceased frontman Andrew Wood, and were only posthumously successful (albeit very much so) after the movement "broke" in 1991 with beautiful singles "Hunger Strike" and "Say Hello 2 Heaven" released the previous year. The Seatlle scene was quickly commodotized with Cameron Crowe's "Singles" and with runway models sporting flannel and torn jeans. It was a flash in the pan.

Enough geography. I am fascinated in finding the band that really broke the artsy movement of SINCERE rock of the late 80's and early 90s. I've got news for you, it ain't Nirvana. I don't care how many times I see the music journalist's golden catch-phrase ("1991: The Year Punk Broke"). It wasn't Nirvana. Nirvana was just the most explosive in terms of immediate reaction, both sales and media-wise. They flickered out just as quick, and who's to say they wouldn't have been a flash-in-the-pan, albeit a HUGELY influential one (Devo, only way bigger) had Cobain lived on another thirty years?

With all that's been written about Nirvana's influences, Neil Young being the "Godfather of Grunge" (and doing several projects with Pearl Jam, only to dull them down even more, all respect to them), and the linkage down the decades between the Velvet Underground's New York art scenes and Sonic Youth's N.Y. art scene, there are a few forerunners for bands who were the first to really break down the doors of eighties corporate FM radio. The Honors:

REM - Very likely the first, from their debut LP "Murmur" in the early 1980s, these Gerogians, although a great deal lighter than most of the sludge and excess that came after them and geographically isolated from many of the acts mentioned already here, they were the first to get college radio attention to such a large degree, and their first real FM rock rtadio hit was, I beleive, "Orange Crush."

The Cure - Another early forerunner, even though they have more in common with goth and New Wave than with later modern rockers. Still, a greatly appreciated band whose contributions to alternative rock, I notice, are often overlooked. Along with Oingo Boingo, they showed a massive degree of originality and androgyny during the restrictive Reagan years and during the rise of MTV.

The Beastie Boys - Hip hop band from New York. These guys come to us from time capsule all the way from 1979! HUGELY influential, predating even Faith No More in the realms of white boy rock in mainstream acceptance. Ridiculed upon their initial attempts at rapping/sampling, they nevertheless pioneered in the genre(s). They formed initially as a hardcore punk band. Their fusion of hip hop and punk rock genres is often seen as a precursor to the rapcore and nu metal genres of the late 1990s which included bands such as Limp Bizkit, Korn & Kid Rock. It should be noted that they are aware of this, and unhappy with this dubious distinction in the lyrics of their 1999 single "Alive," which distances the group from this genre through the line; "Created a monster with these rhymes I write, goatee metal rap please say goodnight."

Jane's Addiction - These L.A. art rockers were the remnants of Dave Navarro and band mates' metal bands and bohemian-to-the-max Perry Farrell, a man who virtually embodied the open-minded culturally-amalgamated excesses of the new "alternative" cultural movement. He had already finished with his earlier band, Psi-Com by this point, and was himself a Jewish, European mutt with a flair for hispanic culture, and a niche in funk, metal, art, and, yes hip-hop and techno (he has a side career as a DJ, under the hilarious dichotomous pseudonym DJ Peretz). These guys attrracted black kids, Mexican kids, white kids, metaheads, indie freaks, skaters, amd virtually everyone with cross-cultural appeal and showmanship. Oh yeah, and leader Perry Farrell has a litany of other projects and invented a HUGELY cross-cultural alternative rock festival featuring the likes of Green Day, NiN, Jane's, and even Cypress Hill year after year and making unimaginable amounts of money, on top of routinely breaking new and influential acts. As bohemian as its founder, the travelling festival is more akin to a musical collidoscope of a carnival than a traditional rock concert. The festival continues to this day.

Mother Love Bone - Okay. I'm cheating here. Mother Love Bone never had an actual hit. They formed from the remnants of earlier bands, including Seatlle's grim punkers Green River, featuring members of later Seattle bands Pearl Jam and Mudhoney. Why are they included as candidates? Well, they served three purposes:

1) They were considered the "next big thing" in many rock circles and attracted major label attention to the "Seattle scene," then bustling with more happy-go-lucky energy in its respective punk rock and "love rock" movements

2) It's debut album and EP featured members of future Seattle rock bands, most notably Pearl Jam, and, despite it's very positive charge, the music was multi-cultural and multi-faceted and energetic in that Jane's Addiction/Spin Doctors kind of way

3) Andrew Wood DIED of a heroine overdose right as the highly-anticipated album was released. The album thus sank without a trace without any band to tour under, and both the fact that he died and the cause of death were foreshoadowing much of popular music's history for the next 20 or so years. Many other notable alternative musicians have overdosed on heroine. Many have died. The FACT that Wood died took the wind out of EVERYONE'S sails in the Seattle scene. Andrew was the one to watch. Andrew had a bright future. Andrew was the love-child of Freddie Mercury's showmanship and Robert Plant's hippie, bohemian dreamland. Musicians especially mourned Andrew's sad passing. The movement turned dark, and many of the band members formed new bands, bands like Pearl Jam (after recruiting California surfer/poet Eddie Vedder), Soundgarden, and, long before Pearl Jam, tribute band Temple of the Dog. Mother Love Bone is here just because of sheer influence; of the dominoe-effect their fated career had on what became the popular music scene of the 1990s, and because the band's respective members were to sell in the millions.

Alice in Chains - Here is one of the top candidates for breaking through the corporate blockade setup by cheesy corporate radio of the 1980s by blending thrash influences with glam metal pretensions, mixed with southern boogie sounds, and giving it a makeover of heroin-addicted (quite literally) lyrics and sounds from the well of several thousand suffering souls. Alice in Chains was metal enough for Metallica-heads, yet alternative enough for the anti-metal crowds of indie rockers, pop musicians, and casual rock fans. Their breakthrough song was undeniably "Man in the Box." When piped through FM car stereos around 1989-90, something DIFFERENT was on the horizon. Initially sporting a slightly more glam-rock image, they soon left this to rot on the vine, and, by career's end, the most hopeful song that could be heard on their records was about the Vietnam war. Now that, paired with singer/songwriter Layne Staley's death (which BROKE my HEART, by the way) in 2002, is some deep, dark shit. Other, earlier, and mildly successful singles included "We Die Young" from debut LP "Facelift." Staley later combined with Screaming Trees members to release the commercial and critically successful "Above" LP under the name Mad Season.

Sonic Youth - While wholly non-commercial, they were a VERY early example of art-rock which certainly fit under the umbrella term "slternative rock." Oh, and not only did they get a major-label contract with Geffen Records with Nirvana's help, releaseing a string of albums starting with "Dirty," but they were on the Simpsons in an episode called "Homerpalooza" which profiled alternative rock culture along with NiN, Cypress Hill, Peter Frampton, and the Smashing Pumkins. Neat-o.

Pixies - While never having a charting hit single, these guys nevertheless were Smashing Pumkins-meets- Nirvana before Nirvana or the Pumkins acutally existed. They were highly influential on both and refined the loud-soft dynamic popularized by both bands long before anyone else in this entry. The closest they had to a hit single was likely "Here Comes You Man," and, later "Where is My Mind?" (popularized all too late by "Fight Club").Without the Pixies, there would be no clean to distorted rev up in Nirvana's repertiore, and no "Rape Me." Sorry kids.

X - This L.A. band fronted by a woman popularized a sort of hybrid of sleaze rock (Slash records was their label, complete with New York Dolls-style font) and L.A. Punk. Very alternative to what was going on in popular music at the time.

The Melvins - On here because they've been around since the early 1980s and because of the sheer weight of their influences in both metal, art rock, psychedelia, and the "grunge" sound.

Soundgarden - One of the EARLIEST of the Seattle experiments that fused metal to punk, these guys were ONE HELL OF A RESPECTABLE ROCK BAND. Hard rock to the core, they nevertheless infused their rock with metal, psychedelic acid rock tendencies, punk, and a thick, grunge sound combined with a singer whose almighty wail could reach the highest of decibels, scare your parents, and strip the paint off of walls. They pre-dated Pearl Jam and existed alongside even Mother Love Bone, as I recall. They lie firmly alongside Alice in Chains as some of the earliest mildly successful bands to fuse metal and "alternative" psychedelic punk so perfectly, giving hangers-on from both diametrically-opposed camps the best of both worlds. Alice in Chains had more immediate commercial success though. Still, they went out at their artistic and commercial peak and NEVER looked back, a rare occurrence and accomplishment in itself.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers - Okay . . . . . let's be fair. Yes, the Chili Pepper's burned out on the "interesting" scale a LONG ass time ago, possibly even before Bloodsugarsexmajick. However, these guys were very influential in the L.A. bohemian funk/metal/punk/white boy rap scene of the early to mid-1980s, and their credentials go all the way back to 1983! They almost personify the multicultural, bohemian, anything goes scene of 1980s L.A., It should be noted, however, that by the time the hugely successful Californication came out, their creative flame had burned out long ago, they watered themselves down, and spent the rest of their career (up until now) trying to recreate the success of "Under the Bridge" with every fucking new single. They are now a far less interesting band, fronted by one of my least favorite frontmen in rock music. Fruciante! Spare what's left of your dignity and GET OUT!

Ministry - Not only did these guys make Nine Inch Nails (founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor, visionary extraordinare who's supermassive body of work yields a biomechanical universe all his own, and who was named one of the most influential people in Time magazine in 1997) possible and commercially viable. They popularized "industrial," both of the technoid and metal vareties, with mainstream kids. They hailed from Chicago, and formed clear back in 1981, but didn't really have a hit until "Jesus Built My Rotrod" from the seminal "Psalm 69" album in 1991. Ministry spawned a litany of industrial rock, now a musical industry unto itself with the likes of Reznor, his side-projects, and his musical goth protege, the very controversial Marilyn Manson.

Faith no More - Not only did they pioneer the acceptance of cross-cultural metal/rap; they were also radically creative, to the point of alientating their record label, and their massive crossover hit single, 1989's "Epic" pre-dates, I think, any other major hit song in this blog, excepting maybe REM's early hits. They are very likely one of the main sources of "alternative acceptance" of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Rap/rock was ALIVE, later reinvented by Rage Against the Machine, held aloft by the Beastie Boys (active since 1979!), and then RUINED by the nu metal and rap metal of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Mike Patton is still an energetic, highly active, and highly influential madman.

Only in the diverse and wacky "Anything goes" cultural soup early 1990s could a band called Primus get serious airplay on MTV with a mix of funk, metal, and Zappa-esque humor and claymated video for a song about a racecar driver named "Jerry." Only in the early 1990s could a band like Faith No More reach the top of the charts in the wake of Aerosmith's collaboration with Run D.M.C., releasing a chart-topping song of cheesy whiteboy rap funk metal. Only in the early 1990s could a funky all/black metal band called Living Coulour get away with wearing bicycle spandex (seeminly designed by Nickelodeon's art director) on Arsenio Hall. Ahh the 90s.

So which band really cut through to the mainstream first? It's hard to tell. There are so many variables to consider. I can narrow it down to a few likely candidates, but no matter for now. Back to Faith No More's influential (and strangely precient) "What is IT?!" "It" was at times sheer indifference and boredom ("Oh well, whatever, nevermind"). "It" was rebellion against control, espeically of the corporate radio type. "It" was cross-culturalism in heavy music and urban music ; cross-culturalism of the type gangsta rap and heavy metal had never known or allowed before. "It" was a product of the American "melting pot." "It" was comic books, high tops, and Saturday Morning Cartoons. "It" was "diamond ropes," "silver chains," "paper hearts" and "umbilical nooses." This was the odd, drug-addled imagery of "grunge," but also of an era. What was it that made this movement so "real," so genuine, so different and so much more diverse than today's static insta-star movements? It's hard to narrow it down to just one thing. I have no clue what "it" was, but I loved it.